Just want to update this thread with some more results with my misbehaving Touch. I have been using it for over a month, after topping it off, as I mention above. It has been dropping about 3%/day during that time, sleeping or in use, which is about what you should expect.

I just recharged it using the charger from 27% up to 100%. After one night of sleep, it was down to 91%. So you can see that when you get a Touch that acts like this, it does not straighten itself out after a few charges. I keep being disappointed when it doesn't, but that's the way things are. I am now charging it from 91% back up to 100% with it tethered to the computer. As I have said, this should fix it for another month or so...